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Nerdarchy > Dungeons & Dragons  > Best in Show 5E D&D Magic Items for a Bard

Best in Show 5E D&D Magic Items for a Bard

Old D&D Spell Sticks to Snakes Reborn for 5E D&D — Cast Down Thine Staff!
D&D Ideas -- Minions for 5E D&D

Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted find inspiration to come up with the best magic items for bards in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Like the other discussions on top magic items for various character classes in 5E D&D this is an unusual topic because it’s rare for a character to choose magic items. However there’s a few opportunities I can think of off the top of my head. In Adventurers League play items can be traded on a one-for-one basis for items with the same rarity at a cost of 15 downtime days unless they’re playing at the same table. Games beginning beyond 1st level often allow for players to choose magic items too, like in our own monthly fan one shots. These looks at 5E D&D magic items are difficult for an entirely different reason though. The best of anything is subjective, if for no other reason than campaigns are as diverse as the people playing them. This time around we’re going to stick to looking at homebrew magic items at D&D Beyond and leaning into the subjectivity. For each type of magic item (excluding potions and scrolls) I’ll consider the rating, views and adds for each kind and choose the one I think best serves a bard. So let’s get into it.

Magic items for bards at D&D Beyond

It’s worth noting you can create homebrew content for private use and share your homebrew content publicly at DDB at no cost — there’s no subscription required to access these services. However if you want to add any of the homebrew magic items mentioned below or any other homebrew content you come across to your collection you must subscribe at the Hero Tier or above. There’s a lot you can do at DDB for free. Check out what you can do here.

The DDB homebrew collection uses several statistics to track entries. Views shows how many people looked at any particular homebrew creation, Adds shows how many times a creation was added to someone’s collection and Rating is an upvote/downvote system. Since there are over 150,000‬ magic items in the collection I’m going to use an ad hoc selection method to find some that also make naturally good magic items for bards.

Armor

Highest rating

Shield of Heroic Memories. A magical shield empowered by the stories recounted when held sounds like a perfect compliment for a consummate storyteller like a bard..

Most adds

Shield of Heroic Memories gets my vote here again. A lot of highly rated homebrew armor seems designed for very specific kinds of characters and a lot of them reference particular classes and features so I’m giving it to this shield because it’s evocative of bards to me.

Most views

Mage’s Gauntlets. I had to go pretty deep into the homebrew armor to find something that caught my attention and settled on this set of nifty leather armor that comes in different varieties based on the schools of magic and provides different effects for each one.

Ring

Highest rating

Ring of Quiptical Hits. Perfect for bards who fancy the tete-a-tete of martial combat this ring turns a hit into a crit — if you deliver a successful quip aimed at the opponent. If the whimsical wordplay falls flat though, the deflating feeling leaves you under the effect of slow until the end of your next turn. Ouch.

Most adds

Ring of the Grammarian. Bards possess an affinity for words and sounds and this wonderfully fun magic ring lets you alter one letter of a spell cast nearby with the appropriate changes to the result.

Most views

Ring of Truths. The only real way to get an honest review of your performance!

Rod

Highest rating

Rod of Mercurial Form. The ultimate stage prop! This rod transforms into any object you want, which also includes armor and weapons. Move over Carrot Top — the prop bard is ready to bring the house down.

Most adds

Rod of Mercurial Form takes the No. 1 spot again and who am I to disagree?

Most views

Rod of Mercurial Form comes in as No. 1 again. When the same item gets top rank, adds and views plus it’s my pick, there’s no dispute.

Staff

Highest rating

As-You-Will Quarterstaff. Like the rod of mercurial form this magical staff demonstrates versatility and makes a terrific magic weapon too!

Most adds

The staff category seems headed in the same direction as rods with As-You-Will Quarterstaff showing up at the very top of the list and appealing to me as a great magic item for a bard.

Most views

As-You-Will Quarterstaff falls to No. 3 on the list overall, but remains No. 1 in my heart.

 

Wand

Highest rating

Wand of Wondrous Sounds. Not only does this wand create sound effects, the table of potential SFX uses a d12 so it scores extra points for making use of this often neglected polyhedral.

Most adds

Beholder’s Gaze. To me one of the bard’s great strengths is versatility so I like this one for the variety of possible effects. The wand itself — a dessicated eyestalk from a legit beholder — only captures the magic of one particular effect but nevertheless this feels like the kind of kooky magic items that would find a good home with a bard.

Most views

Wand of Pyrotechnics. Similar to the rod of mercurial form this wand serves double duty as a fantastic way to enhance a performance and produce some useful magical effects during an adventure.

Weapon

Highest rating

Ela — The Electric Lute Axe. A legendary battle axe and also lute with a bunch of awesome abilities — several of which function for a bard specifically — makes this easily the top choice.

Most adds

Clockwork Rapier. At the end of the day a rapier +1 but for panache I’m giving it to this one. Distinctive qualities make magic items memorable even if they don’t hold tremendous power within.

Most views

I’ve done a lot of these posts looking at homebrew magic items at DDB so I was surprised to find Ela — The Electric Lute Axe much further down the list for view but so high in rating and adds. At any rate, nothing preceding it jumped out at me so when I came to this fantastic magic weapon it was a no brainer.

Wondrous item

Highest rating

Boots of the Vigilant. It’s no surprise whenever I find magic items created by Matt Mercer at or near the top of the list. While these are spectacular for any character, a bard taking their turn high in the initiative order makes a lot of sense with their wealth of features to affect others whether buffing allies or debuffing enemies.

Most adds

I have something of a loose rule for this series. You may have picked up on it in this post already. If an item is at the top of the rating list and it was also my choice for the highest rated of the magic items, and also shows as the top slot for the other categories I automatically make it my choice. So boots of the vigilant will be my pick here too.

Most views

Bag of Wondrous Randomization. Can you tell I like a bard with a wide array of options and a bit of magician flair? This neato magic item is like a bag of holding but all sorts of objects — and creatures — might emerge when you reach in and roll the dice. Truth be told one of our own magic items reminds me of this except ours is way better, natch! Alisaras Repository of Misplaced Things operates in a similar way except with way more possibilities, including legit magic items, and the added quirkiness that the items you pull from inside actually belong to someone somewhere in the multiverse and you’re basically pilfering them magically. You can find Alisaras Repository of Misplaced Things in Secrets of the Vault: Mage Forge Vol. 1. along with dozens of other magic items, random loot tables and a new weapon quality. As always when you sign up for Nerdarchy the Newsletter you get a special coupon code worth $9.99 so you can pick up that book and get something else nice for yourself too right here.

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Doug Vehovec

Nerditor-in-Chief Doug Vehovec is a proud native of Cleveland, Ohio, with D&D in his blood since the early 80s. Fast forward to today and he’s still rolling those polyhedral dice. When he’s not DMing, worldbuilding or working on endeavors for Nerdarchy he enjoys cryptozoology trips and eating awesome food.

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